jihvā-parīkṣā: what the term means and how it is translated
jihvā-parīkṣā जिह्वापरीक्षा is an Ayurvedic technical term. It is rendered into English in 4 different ways across 5 sources, which is the reason this page exists: the renderings do not agree, and the difference between them changes what the term is taken to mean.
| Transliteration | jihvā-parīkṣā |
|---|---|
| Devanagari | जिह्वापरीक्षा |
| Also written | jihwa pariksha, jivha pariksha, rasanā-parīkṣā (rasanā is a WHO synonym of jihvā), āsya-parīkṣā (adjacent mouth-taste section in the Yogaratnakara, not identical) |
| Category, as gathered | pariksha (tongue examination; fourth member of the Yogaratnakara's eightfold examination) |
| Grouped here under | Examination and treatment |
| Classical citations | 3 |
| Citations checked | 2026-10-07 |
How it is translated, and whether the translation holds
Each rendering is given with the source that uses it. The assessment is ours.
tongue (domain 4 of aṣṭasthānaparīkṣā, ITA-4.7.4)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · ITA-4.7.4, p.115 · comparator
No stand-alone entry for jihvā-parīkṣā.
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Tongue (jihvā, rasanā, gojihvikā, gojihvā as synonyms)
WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda (2022) · PDF page 87 (anatomy section) · comparator
Reproduced unaltered and attributed from the WHO International Standard Terminologies on Ayurveda, which is what that licence permits. It is deliberately absent from the downloadable dataset, which is offered under CC BY 4.0 and invites the modification a NoDerivs licence forbids.
Jihwa (tongue); Jivha (Tongue)
Shekhawat, JVWU BAMS e-notes · textbook/teaching
tongue (jivha) assessment
Kurande et al. 2013 (PMID 24191170) · peer-reviewed
Wagh et al. 2026 (PMID 42142499) · peer-reviewed pilot
The source's rendering runs to a full definition and is not reproduced here, because this project has not cleared that source for quotation.
The classical passages
Each citation gives its address so a reader can check it in a printed edition, our account of what the passage establishes, and the result of reading it against its source.
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha, section 'atha rogiṇām aṣṭasthāna-nirīkṣaṇam' Nirnaya Sagar Press edition, text pp. 2-3:verses 1 and 5-8 of the section (vv. 7-8 open text p. 3 under the running head 'अष्टविधपरीक्षा ३', archive.org leaf n31) · checked against the source
रोगाक्रान्तशरीरस्य स्थानान्यष्टौ निरीक्षयेत् । नाडीं मूत्रं मलं जिह्वां शब्दं स्पर्शं दृगाकृती ॥ १ ॥ ... आदौ सर्वेषु रोगेषु नाडीजिह्वाक्षिमूत्रतः ॥ ५ ॥ परीक्षां कारयेद्वैद्यः पश्चाद्रोगं चिकित्सयेत् । नाड्या मूत्रस्य जिह्वाया लक्षणं यो न विन्दति ॥ ६ ॥ मारयत्याशु वै जन्तुं स वैद्यो न यशो भजेत् । लक्षयित्वा देशकालौ ज्ञात्वा रोगबलाबलम् ॥ ७ ॥ चिकित्सामारभेद्वैद्यो यशः कीर्तिमवाप्नुयात् ॥ ८ ॥
Tongue (jihvā) is one of the eight sites named in v. 1 (nāḍī, mūtra, mala, jihvā, śabda, sparśa, dṛk, ākṛti). Verses 5-6ab single out pulse, tongue, eyes and urine as what the physician examines first in all diseases before treating. Verses 6cd-7ab say the physician who does not know the signs (lakṣaṇa) of pulse, urine and tongue soon kills the patient and earns no fame; vv. 7cd-8 give the positive counterpart, that the physician who has noted place and time and gauged the strength of the disease before beginning treatment wins fame and renown.
YogaratnakaraPūrvārdha, section headed 'atha jihvā-parīkṣā' (preceded by 'athāsya-parīkṣā') Nirnaya Sagar Press edition, text p. 7 per OCR headers:jihvā-parīkṣā verses 1-2 · checked against the source
अथ् जिहापरीक्षा ¦ जिह्वा रीता खरस्परषं स्फुटिता मार्तेऽधिके । रक्ता इयामा भवेप्पित्ते कफे शख्राऽतिपिच्छिखा ॥ ¶॥ कृष्णा सकण्टका शुष्का संनिपाताधिके कु सा । मिश्रिते मिभिता ज्ञेया सवैलक्षणवर्जिता ॥ २॥ इति जिह्धापरीकश्चा ।
The tongue signs by dosha: cold, rough, cracked in vāta excess; red or dark in pitta; white and very slimy in kapha; black, thorny, dry in sannipāta; mixed signs in combined dosha.
Caraka SamhitaVimanasthana 4, Kaviratna Lesson IV, printed p. 497:Kaviratna's aphorism 9 (printed after); within standard 4/7 · checked against the source
Verily, the taste occurring in the body of the patient, though an object of sense, should be ascertained by Inference ; since, the ascertainment of this by the employment of the physician's own tongue cannot very well take place. Therefore, it is by questioning the patient that the taste of his mouth should be known.
Caraka excludes rasa alone from the physician's direct sensory examination of the patient (Vi 4/7: sarvān indriyārthān āturaśarīragatān parīkṣeta, anyatra rasajñānāt); the patient's mouth-taste (āturamukharasa) is to be learned by questioning him, because the physician cannot taste it himself. The 'tongue' in this passage is the physician's, not the patient's. It shows that Caraka's explicit tongue-related instruction here concerns taste, not inspection; it is NOT evidence that Caraka never inspected a patient's tongue, since the same aphorism orders colour and form of the body examined by eye and Vi 8/8 describes a fit student's tongue as thin, red and clear (tanu-rakta-viśada-jihva). The named eightfold jihvā-parīkṣā is Yogaratnakara's, but this passage does not prove its absence from Caraka.
Not to be confused with
- āsya-parīkṣā (mouth/taste examination)
- In the Nirnaya Sagar Yogaratnakara a separate section on taste in the mouth (sweet in vāta, pungent in pitta, sweet-sour in kapha) immediately precedes jihvā-parīkṣā; Caraka likewise treats mouth-taste by questioning (Vi. 4/7).
- rasanā (gustatory sense)
- WHO lists rasanā as a synonym of jihvā (the organ), but in the indriya context rasanendriya is the sense of taste, not the inspected organ.
- Chinese-medicine tongue diagnosis
- Modern papers (e.g. 42142499) borrow TCM-derived indices such as the Winkel coating index; the Yogaratnakara's dosha-sign scheme is different and much shorter.
- jihvā-stambha, jihvā-mūlagata-mala (WHO disease/sign terms)
- These are disorders or signs of the tongue, not the examination.
Renderings that do not hold
- Tongue diagnosis. The Yogaratnakara reads dosha predominance from the tongue; it is one of eight sites contributing to assessment, not a diagnostic system of its own.
- Treating 'coated tongue = Ama' as classical doctrine of jihvā-parīkṣā. The Yogaratnakara jihvā verses quoted speak of cold/rough/cracked, red/dark, white/slimy, black/thorny/dry tongues by dosha; the specific equation of coating with āma as an index is a modern operationalisation (PMID 42142499 calls it 'an indicator of Ama in Ayurveda' without citing a verse).
Open questions
Recorded rather than resolved. Each one is something this entry cannot currently settle.
- Verse numbering of the jihvā-parīkṣā section in the Vidyotini and Suresh Babu editions.
- Whether the āsya-parīkṣā section is treated as part of jihvā-parīkṣā in other editions.
How to cite this entry
Age Ayurveda Nighantu, jihvā-parīkṣā
, https://nighantu.ageayurveda.com/lexicon/jihva-pariksha/, CC BY 4.0.
The whole lexicon is downloadable from the index.
Machine-readable source: Markdown.
Data exported 2026-10-08.
Educational reference only. A term entry explains what a word means and how it has been translated. Nothing here is advice, and nothing here describes how any condition should be treated.